Elementary School Lessons

Payak

• pulo
• sariwa
• gubat

Maylapi

• kapuluan
• napakasariwa
• kagubatan

Inuulit

• punung-puno
• pira-piraso

Tambalan

• bahaghari
• balikbayan
• silid-aralan

How do we parents deal with “Mom, I need to bring __________ to school tomorrow” situations?

This school year, I vowed to “be ready” for these things and not stress out on having to go to the nearby supermarket or bookstore (or convenience store) for that ONE piece of short folder. With fasterner. And plastic cover.

Since I have three school children, I tried to get school supplies that they “might” need, during short trips to the bookstore, before the requirements started pouring in.

I got these supplies, on top of the required school supplies they needed to bring to school:

• short and long brown envelopes in packs of 10
• short and long folders in packs of 10
• fasteners in a pack
• 3 pieces of 1/4 illustration board
• 3 pieces of 1/8 illustration board (I hope teachers won’t ask for the 1/2 size to be brought the next day)
• an extra sketch pad
• bond papers
• 4 packs of art papers
• 2 packs of construction papers
• several pieces of ball point pens
• a small box of pencils (12s)
• there’s a pack of cut paper in the bookstore with whole sheets of papers, half lengthwise, half crosswise and 1/4 so I got a pack of that

I hope we are more than ready. It sure “hurts” to get these things that are not in the list of must-bring to school but I know I would be saving a lot of money and time and gritted teeth moments when I know I can just get a long brown folder from my stash that has to be brought to school “tomorrow”.

Unless the teacher asks for a red one then I’d probably say “Arghhhhh!” 😀

Last year, I wrote about Global Art Philippines and the national art competition they held last year.

Last month, the younger daughter availed of the gift certificate I have forgotten about have long buried in my bag. Good thing Miss Yen, the directress of Global Art Philippines was accommodating and gave us the chance to redeem the free services. We got eight hours of free lessons plus materials.

The younger daughter was scheduled to have four 2-hour sessions.

Below is her art work, which was done last Saturday, her second from the 4 two hour sessions:

Nice eh?

Thank you Global Art Philippines, especially Global Art Ortigas (Main) for giving my daughter a chance to have these lessons in your center.

Global Art Philippines Facebook page

Ortigas branch (Main):

Unit 101 Sekai Center, 368 Ortigas Avenue, corner Madison Street, San Juan
Tel: 515-7005; 726-0435

First day of school checklist:

• covered all 19 textbooks with plastic cover. #backbreakingtask
• checked and re-checked used,barely used, left over school supplies to be used for this school year’s list
• uniforms are ready till tomorrow’s classes which means I have to iron Gala uniforms tomorrow for the rest of the week (gah!)
• listed down things we forgot to purchase like more envelopes and folders (we still have a few unused and more barely used), more plastic envelopes, toothbrushes and combs for health kit
• school subjects, names of teachers and names of the children written on the notebooks (opted for handwritten tags instead of printed ones)

Go to sleep now because I have to wake up at 4am to prepare packed lunch.

Goodbye summer vacation! You will be sorely missed.

School year 2011 – 2012 is fast approaching. For the homeschoolers no more, we only have two weeks left of our summer (now rainy) vacation left.

The children have been enrolled and now we face the task of getting the school supplies needed for the school year.

At the start of the summer vacation, I managed to go over the school supplies that the children used and saved several things like pencils, erasers, papers, pencil cases and unused art materials. I gathered these together and put them in a big plastic tub together with the other supplies we have accumulated through the years.

Since the school give us a list of what we need to bring, we more or less have an idea what we would need.

The list would include:

• a sleeping mat for the third grader (this was the same sleeping mattress that the high schooler used when she was in Grades 1 -3) since the children up to third grade have nap time during noon
• health kit which includes soap, face towel, a roll of tissue paper, toothpaste and toothbrush (we already have the plastic boxes from last year and we will just re-use with new supplies inside)
• school supplies like art materials in plastic envelopes (the unused art materials have been saved so these can still be used)
• uniforms have been “whitened” during summer for use when school opening comes
• shoes have yet to be shined and cleaned (the son will still use his since the shoes are a size bigger and this goes for the high schooler, the youngest daughter has a new pair)
• bags still need to be cleaned (high schooler got a new bag hurrah! since she alternately use backpacks she’d have since 4th and 5th grade and had no bag upgrade ever since)

I still need to look at the used books and see which ones can still be used (to think I had given some away at the start of summer!) . We have to buy books this school year and this is a bit of a burden with us who have three children. For as long as my eldest child had been enrolled in the school (this is her 11th year in the school) school books have been included in the miscellaneous fee. Now we have to pay for the books separately. Sigh…

Are you parents ready for the new school year?

In a way, we’re not ready yet but we do have a certain excitement in meeting new challenges and in the chance of doing better this school year.

Our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal is celebrating his 150th Birth Anniversary this year.

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines has lined up activities and events all over the country in order to commemorate the occasion.

Click here for more details.

Visit the National Historical Commission of the Philippines website for more info.

I am a believer in non-traditional school setups so when mommy blogger friends and I were invited to visit Active Ambassadors Academy, I did not hesitate to go because this is a school that has a part-traditional and part-progressive approach to teaching.

My children go to a similar school setup where as I, as a special education teacher and a former homeschooling mom, started teaching preschool using integrated core curriculum.

Based from the experiences of my mommy blogger friend iMom whose youngest son goes to Active Ambassadors Academy, I pretty much surmised that this school is different.

Active Ambassadors Academy:

• is committed to nurture and educate children to be globally competitive with skills and knowledge that will make them successful ambassadors of positive change
• has two supplementary education providers: Active Brain Inc (ABI) and Dash Cultural Educational Institute (DCEI)
• preschool curriculum aiming for competencies in English and Chinese
• “Handiworx” a life skills program which aims to develop independence, creativity and practical life skills
• believes in developmental approach to learning and thereby espousing a holistic and developmental approach to teaching

AAA Graduates are:

• Ambassadors of Wisdom and Knowledge
• Ambassadors of Excellence and Service
• Ambassadors of Love and Peace

AAA Core Values:

• Resilient (I can do it)
• Determined (Practice makes perfect)
• Global Thinkers, Proactive Leaders (Possibilities are Endless)
• Generous (Care and Share)
• Environmental (Think clean, think green)
• Humble Servants (Love your neighbor)
• Christ-like (Live for Christ)

The AAA Program is composed of the following:

• DASH CEI Chinese language program
• MIKIDS Multiple Intelligences Program for English
• Handiworx Life Skills Program
• Supplemental programs of Chinese Character Canon and SIP Abacus and Mental Math Brain Training Center

Children wowing us with their Mental Math skills made possible through SIP Abacus and Mental Math Brain Training Center<. Active Brain Inc. is Philippines sole distributor of SIP Abacus Brain Training Program and Mikids Multimedia Intelligence Program.

Dash Cultural and Educational Institute is the sole distributor for the Chinese Character Canon program and has developed their own Chinese language etymology course. Chinese teachers are native speakers of Mandarin and came from China. And yes, adults can learn mandarin here too.

Active Ambassadors Academy is located at #35 Dona Hemady Avenue cor 5th Street, New Manila QC. Contact numbers: 02-4755576/02-5248195